Former Mesa County Doctor Allowed To Keep Practicing After ‘Joke’
Dr. Barry King, who dyed a patient's vagina purple as a joke, will be allowed to continue to practice medicine.
In early 2017, Dr. King agreed to see an employee concerning her fears that her cancer may have returned. Having just lost her last ob-gyn to retirement, she had nowhere else to turn, so she turned to the man she worked for that she thought was a friend.
During the exam, Dr. King had done something to his patient and instructed her to have her husband look at it when she got home, even though they did not know each other and her husband was not a doctor. While using the bathroom, she had noticed a purple dye and was concerned but said nothing and went to work the next day.
The doctor's demeanor, she said, was odd. And when she told another employee about the dye, that person told her they already knew, as the doctor told everyone in the office about his "joke".
The woman sued the doctor for the joke, and, while he will be able to continue to practice medicine, he was sentenced to 100 hours of community service, had to write a letter of apology and donate $500 to the Western Slope Center for Children.
Dr. King is now serving on a military base in Louisiana.